Developing communication skills isn’t an end in itself. The point of becoming a better, more effective communicator is so that you can be a better, more effective everything else in your life. Communication is the way we do all the other things that are important to us.
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I was honored to be a guest on business coach Study McKee’s podcast, “Focus Forward.” We talked about business successes and challenges, and what it means to be a good communicator. Sturdy has a focus on building strong processes that support you and your business, and I was excited to learn about his work. Check … Read more
My first “big job” was as the Education Director of the National Shakespeare Company, in New York. Our mission was to bring Shakespeare plays and classroom workshops to students at K-12 schools all over the city, and I was absolutely on fire for this project. In order to make it happen, I raised money for … Read more
Job interviews often cover the subject of communication skills. Like most nontechnical areas, communication skills are pretty unquantifiable, so there’s not a single agreed-upon way to report on our own capability. Because of this, we tend to assess our “communication skills” in terms of how we think we talk. In our own estimation, can we … Read more
The coach of the college basketball team I root for (Go Heels!) announced his retirement last week. I’m sad about it, but that’s not what this post is about. Roy Williams is a Hall of Fame coach. He has 903 wins, three National Championships, and literally dozens of other accolades he earned at both UNC-Chapel … Read more
Lately, as I’ve been on video call after video call, I’ve wished I could turn the camera around and show the people I’m speaking with what’s outside my window. Spring is really underway here in western North Carolina. The forsythia is fully in bloom, a massive yellow burst in a corner of the fence. Above … Read more
This post was originally published in the fall of 2018. A recent conversation with a colleague made me think of it, and it still seems relevant! Most of the people I coach have a horror of failure. They are leaders who look for the next achievement, personally and professionally. They have a lot of accomplishments … Read more
I was on a video call this week with about fifteen people, and as I looked across their work-from-home rectangles, my heart sank. In almost every box, people slumped, multitasked, stared fixedly at a monitor located away from their camera, and looked down their noses at their laptops. In one, a lonely office chair sat … Read more
Last year I started watching the prime time drama “9-1-1” (and then its spin-off, “9-1-1 Lone Star”), and I am totally hooked. I won’t pretend that either show is exceptional art. The writing is predictable and the plots outlandish. But a lot of the acting is great, and I’ll tell you this: week after week, … Read more
Podcasts are, of course, global. They can be recorded and heard anywhere! But my latest foray into podcast guest-dom still feels local to me, since my connection with the hosts, Josh Batenhorst and Tom Chalmers, is through my life here in Asheville. Josh and Tom Devour the World is a podcast that explores our relationship … Read more
